Mystery Solved!
Every now and then I’m reminded that, no matter how long I’ve worked in this business, I still have more to learn. For example, a few weeks back I wrote a very critical blog entry about gas stations that put up signs that say “No Ethanol! Real Gas Sold Here!” In that entry, I said that anyone who used that as a selling point for their gasoline was un-American. Well, l just attended a sustainable energy conference, and I happened to mention the “No Ethanol” signs to one of the City of Milwaukee fleet engineers and he explained the the rationale for promoting “Real Gas.” It turns out that the 10 percent ethanol blend that is commonly sold at gas stations here in southern Wisconsin has a relatively short shelf-life of a year or less. That’s a concern to the many people who leave gas in their lawn mowers, outboard motors, ATVs, dirt bikes, scooters, etc., during the winter (and in their snowmobiles and snow blowers over the summer). Not surprisingly, they don’t want to have to worry that some bad ethanol is going to gunk up their fuel filter or carburetor during the off-season.
The problem is, a lot of people are still going to see this as an excuse to avoid using cleaner, domestically-produced ethanol in their cars and trucks, for no food reason. So, now I understand the rationale for the signs, but I still don’t like it.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Especially since you can simply put an additive in your vehicle’s tank like seafoam which with prevent the ethanol blended gas from “gumming up” the fuel filter or carburator. Anyone that has a boat or snowmobile in Minnesota or Wisconsin knows this….
March 19th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I think you are missing the point in that I will only use this gas to run in my small engine equipment because that industry has not caught up with running this fuel and am not concerned about any problems relating to my car because I have not had any. And as for the self life of one year, my understanding is it starts to break down after 90 days.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Alcohol is a cleaner and gasoline is the part that gums up carburetors. These carburetors were gumming up over winter waaaaay before ethanol was added to gasoline. What a joke.